Potworks Reservoir

Where is Potworks Reservoir?

Countries on its shores: Antigua and Barbuda.

Largest body of water of: Antigua and Barbuda.

Middle of the lake: 17.06° N, 61.77° W

The story behind it

Antigua gets little rain, and the island has no real rivers, only a few small streams. Again and again the island ran short of water. So in the late 1960s workers built the Potworks Dam near the villages of Bethesda and All Saints. In May 1970 it opened, and water filled the valley behind it. An old bridge and buildings from a sugar plantation disappeared under the water. The lake covers about 130 hectares, which is 1.3 km², and is about 2.5 km long. Antigua and Barbuda has no natural lake of this size; the largest body of water is this reservoir. It holds about two thirds of all the water the island can store. In 1974 it helped people through a hard drought, but during a very long drought that ended in 1985 it dried up, and water had to be brought from nearby islands. Big storms, like one in February 2024, fill it up again.

Find it on the globe

Potworks Reservoir is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.